


Guidance

by itsthor



Category: South Park
Genre: M/M, but that didn’t happen, the intention was for this to be cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-22
Updated: 2018-01-22
Packaged: 2019-03-08 01:51:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13447989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itsthor/pseuds/itsthor
Summary: Kenny McCormick’s job is to guide souls to the afterlife. He’s always been good at it, until he meets Clyde Donovan.





	Guidance

Cause of death, car crash. It wasn’t remarkable, but fatal nonetheless. The boy was leaving behind friends, family, and a life filled with opportunity. This wasn’t unusual, but Kenny was still new to the job. Watching people die still made him uncomfortable. He hoped the death was painless. The EMTs did their best to save him, but they just couldn’t. However, with the way his body looked after the crash, he was better off leaving it behind. 

Right about now was when Kenny’s job began. 

“What happened?” The boy asked, staring at the scene with wide eyes. The parametics were loading the body into an ambulance. 

“You died,” Kenny said as if he was reciting a script, which he was. This time was different though. The victim was about his age when he died; young. Even though Kenny vaguely remembered anything about his own death, he knew he was too young to die. This was the first minor Kenny ever had to guide. 

The boy pressed his lips together and tears almost immediately filled his eyes. “I...died?”

“Yeah,” Kenny nodded. “But don’t feel bad. Everyone dies.” 

Some kind of crying noise emitted from the boy. He dropped to the curb, hugged his knees into his chest, and sobbed. Kenny watched awkwardly as he tried to decide what to do. He’d dealt with emotional people in the past, but this boy’s age was too much for Kenny to handle. Technically, he wasn’t supposed to do anything. The job was to take the soul to the afterlife and move on. So far, Kenny had been rather good at it. 

He sat next to the boy with uneasiness and checked his watch. It had been 4 minutes since the time of death. Kenny’s usual guiding time was anywhere between 10-15 minutes. He knew it would be different this time. He would definitely get made fun of for taking so long, and for breaking the script. 

“What’s your name?” Kenny asked, not looking toward the boy. He knew it was bad idea to get to know the victims, but he was just so young. 

“You don’t know?” He asked between sniffles. “They don’t tell you this stuff in Heaven?” 

“What makes you think you’re going to Heaven?” Kenny laughed, immediately regretting his decision after seeing the horror on the boy’s face. “Sorry! It was...a bad joke.” 

“My name is Clyde—was Clyde.” 

Kenny tilted his head to the side. “What do you mean ‘was’? This is the afterlife! I’m sure you’ll feel more alive here than anytime during your actual life!” 

“You would know,” Clyde said with a hopeful smile. 

“Well,” Kenny looked away. “I haven’t experienced anything beyond Purgatory, but I’ve heard so many great things!” 

“So what do you do?” 

“My job is to guide the souls who die to the afterlife. We get assignments everyday on these little post-it notes with a place and a time. We go there a little before said time and wait for whatever happens.” 

Clyde leaned forward. “Then what?” 

“We guide the soul through Purgatory. It’s not a long walk, don’t worry. Then once we reach the gate, we bid them a farewell.” 

“You don’t know what’s behind the gate?” Clyde asked. 

Kenny shook his head. He’d always hoped the day would come. The day when he’d get promoted and he’d get to walk through that gate. Maybe he would see all the lovely souls he’d guided. But somewhere in his heart, he knew that wouldn’t happen. Especially since he decided to take so long on this soul. He definitely didn’t see any kind of promotion in his future. 

“We should get going, right?” Clyde stood up, dusted himself off, and extended a hand for Kenny. “I’m kinda excited to see my mom. She’ll be there, won’t she?” 

“Yeah,” Kenny said sadly. He pulled himself up and started walking down the empty street. “She should be.” 

Clyde quickly caught up. “How do we get to this Purgatory?” 

With a quick wave of Kenny’s hand, the streetlights and buildings turned to dead trees. The perpetual gloomy sky was the same as the real world’s current sky. The pavement they walked on was now a dirt and yellowed grass. The silence was enough to make a person go mad, but he had gotten used to it. 

“Welcome. Your stay will be around 7 short minutes.” Kenny continued walking the familiar path with Clyde at his side. He audibly gasped when Clyde grabbed his arm. 

“It’s...kinda scary here,” Clyde admitted with a shy smile. “I’m sure you’re used to it though.” 

Kenny nodded. “Yeah, but I could never shake the feeling that something is watching me.” 

“Thank goodness you feel it, too.” Clyde shivered. “Why do we have to come here?”

“This is just where everyone goes when they die. A really long time ago, guiders like me didn’t exist, and souls would get lost here,” Kenny explained. “Thanks to us, everyone gets where they need to go.” 

“Interesting,” Clyde hummed. 

As Kenny had suspected, the walk was short. He could just make out the large gate in the distance. He attempted to speed up his walking, but Clyde, who was still clinging to his arm, kept them moving at a slow, leisurely pace. 

“Did you die?” 

“What?” Kenny asked, thrown off guard. 

“Did you die?” Clyde repeated. 

Flashes of Kenny’s old life appeared in his head. Then flashes of his death did, too. But he couldn’t remember exactly how he died. He saw many deaths, and for whatever reason his brain placed himself in each one and he couldn’t remember which was his. 

“I think so,” Kenny said. “I can’t seem to remember.” 

“Oh,” Clyde sighed. “So what’s your name? Do you remember that?” 

“Kenny McCormick.” 

By that time, they’d reached the gate. It was large, stretching upward and to the side for miles. They stood in front of it in silence for only a few seconds before Clyde turned and hugged him. The sudden embrace sent chills up Kenny’s spine. His cheeks heated up and he realized just how long it’d been since he actually hugged someone. Most people just walked through the gate without so much as a thank you. He finally wrapped his own arms around Clyde and squeezed tight, just before Clyde took a step back. 

“Do you ever think about what’s on the other side?” Clyde asked, peeking into the gate as it slowly opened for him. 

The gate revealed nothing but vast darkness, which Kenny heard changed once you entered. 

“Sometimes.” 

“Do you want to see inside?” 

Kenny laughed. “Of course, but I can’t.” 

“Kenny,” Clyde pointed at the gate. “C’mon! It’s literally waiting for you to walk in!” He extended his hand with a huge grin. “What’s the worst that can happen? You die?”

“I can’t!” Kenny’s heart started racing at the thought of going through the gate. “No...I can’t.” 

“An open door’s an invitation,” Clyde insisted. “You gotta jump while the door’s open.” 

Blood pumped through Kenny’s ears as a swell of panic rushed through his body. He looked back into Purgatory, suddenly dreading the walk back more than ever before. He nearly hopped back and forth on his feet before slowly extending his hand. 

Clyde nodded with anticipation. “Come on, Kenny.” 

“I...I’m sorry.” 

Without hesitation, Kenny pushed Clyde through the gate and into the afterlife. He would be fine. He would rejoin with his mom and when Kenny finally got his day, he would rejoin with him, too. But today wasn’t Kenny’s day, and he had to respect that. There were millions of souls who needed his guidance, and Clyde was just one of those million. 

Kenny sighed and started his journey back through Purgatory.

**Author's Note:**

> hi so this is the first thing i’ve ever finished so i hope y’all liked it!


End file.
